Trapped In a Fairy Tale
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: A day at the amusement part gets Conan thrown into the middle of a family crisis as one of their relatives are picked off by a serial killer. Conan drags his temporary family into the mess. Will his curiosity get Kogoro, Ai... or Ran killed? UPDATED THIS STORY WITH JAP NAMES AND TERMS
1. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Went over this story. It's now... July 23rd of 2013

IT NEEDED IT. I had all the Case Closed names, I had no idea how to use honorifics... it's better now. Short but at least better

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_**Chapter 1: Lions and Tigers and Bears… Oh My!**_

"Come on Conan. Hurry up!" Ran yelled as she ran towards the ferris wheel. Conan wasn't sure if she was running because she was excited or because the kids seemed to get in trouble whenever they got to far ahead.

"I'm coming." I think it's so funny that she still gets excited over these rides.

"Why did I have to come along?" Mouri complained. He took a cigarette out of his pocket and I kicked him in the shin.

"Ouch! Why the Hell did you do that you little punk?!"

"You shouldn't smoke at an amusement park Ojisan." I smiled at him as he tried to grab at me. As long as I was expecting it, it was easy enough to get out of his range.

"Gets me out of bed… can't smoke…. can't drink. Humph."

For once, I had to agree with him. I'd rather be at home right now.

I caught up to Ran along with the members of the Shounen Tantei. Ayumi had also talked Haibara into coming.

"And why do I have to watch all you little brats again!"

"Dad, knock it off. You know how bad they wanted to come with."

"Humph."

"Hey Ran," I grabbed her coat. "Why did you want to take us to Tropical Land?" It was strange. The last time he was here with her… a lot happened. She seemed to really want this trip back to. He didn't know why. The kids coming along tore away any of those reservations he had about Ran's choice in venue. She didn't seem sad…

"Well, that's easy. There have been so many cases lately and we never seem to go out and just have fun."

"Ahaha. I guess you're right." Hattori had a point. I did seem to draw bad luck but then again, it could be Mouri.

"Come on Conan, I want to get on the ride." Genta grabbed my arm and hauled me onto the ferris wheel.

It was one of those old kinds of ferris wheels that I didn't think existed in carnivals and fairs that anymore, that still swung back and forth. I was a little surprised to see one here if only because they had the huge one in the back and another one seemed really unnecessary. It hadn't been here when Ran and I had visited. I wondered if it was something the manager of the park decided to put up for a short time.

Ayumi had already jumped in and Genta had grabbed me so I had no choice on who I got to sit with. I barley managed not to trip over the first step when I was thrown in second. I didn't even have a chance to argue before the guy operating it started to set it in motion, and maybe, just a little, I was disappointed I didn't get to go with Ran.

"Hey Conan! This goes really high doesn't it? You can see the whole park from up here!" Ayumi leaned over the side to get a better view.

"No. You know what really makes this ride fun?" Genta started to shake the cart as I turned to him to answer. Now I'm not scared of heights or anything but me and Ayumi weighed so little compared to Genta I thought he was going to throw us out.

"Oi! Stop it!" I yelled at him as I held the bar tightly. Why was I so short? I could barely reach the thing. The least they could have done was put a seatbelt in.

"No way! This is the best part!" He continued to shake the ride violently. Ayumi didn't care but she was holding the bar just as tightly as I was. Hehe. Kids.

"Genta, they'll kick us out if you keep doing that!" I tried to reason with him. Other's hand done it before him for years and the carts had never given under the weight but I didn't want to take that chance that maybe we'd be the first unlucky group. Not very many kids had his weight to throw around.

"No way! They can yell at us but it's not like we're going on it again."

I was shocked at how much the ride was shaking. I really was. If anything I was afraid that we'd get flipped upside and fall out than I was anything else. If I were bigger I wouldn't have been worried but there was so much room to slide around that I couldn't let go of the bar and lean back or I really would fall out.

"Hey guys! Quit shaking the seat!" Ran yelled up at us.

"Aww." Genta stopped. He knew better then to disobey Ran. She could get really scary.

I sat back with a sigh and tried to move as little as possible. We still had half way to go and I didn't want any more movement than necessary. Ayumi leaned forwards and almost gave me a heart attack.

"Chill out Conan. It's not like were gonna fall or anything."

Hm. I wasn't so sure. The ferris wheel looked pretty old. I didn't think it could stand up to a few Gentas.

I was so relieved when we got off the ride. I sat down at the gate while Ran got off with Haibara and Mitsuhiko.

"Hey kids, don't mess with the rides, okay?" She looked at us sternly. Even I got a scathing glance and I didn't do anything.

"Yah, yah" Genta brushed her off.

"Funny" came a whispered voice from next to my ear, "The great detective can't stomach a little five minute ferris wheel ride."

"Don't worry about me," I mumbled back. My voice was steady but I noticed my hands were shaking. Man, I really was getting soft. Maybe Haibara had a point. It'd never been scared of heights before, even without the security.

We started to go over to a small roller coaster. I couldn't go on any of my favorites anymore because of my new height. The little ones were still pretty fun though. Being small gave the childish rides more thrill- or at least, it made the drops seem bigger. I couldn't wait for the day I could go on the normal ones again. Hopefully it wouldn't really take me growing up again.

Just then a large man tripped over me. His knee hit me in the side of the head and we both went down.

"Ouch." I rubbed my head, wincing as I did.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." He turned around to face me. From our scuffle it was already apparent to me the guy gave me a bruise. I'd accidentally touched it a little too hard. The headache that was coming on didn't help matters.

Ran paused. She was at the head of the group and didn't see me fall. I could still kinda see the others nearby though.

"I'm alright," I murmured. I tried to get up too fast and almost fell.

"I didn't mean to run into you kid. Are you sure you're not hurt?" He reached out his hands to catch me but there was no way he was fast enough and I had already caught myself.

"Tadashi, watch where you're going," a woman's voice scolded from behind him.

She was young, maybe in her early twenties. She had soft brown hair halfway tied up. Her eyes were a beautiful green and, being as she was not much older then I really am, looked pretty… good.

"Conan, what happened?" Ran had come back and grabbed my arm. I tired not to blush when she did that since my thoughts weren't exactly pure at the moment.

"Oh, it's nothing. He only bumped into me a little." I smiled, trying to not seem so obvious.

"Oh, eh, I think I broke your glasses," I heard the man say. I looked as he raised the lenses. One of them, the one with the tracking screen, was cracked and the frame was slightly bent.

Well, looks like Hakase would be working on those for a while. I'd have to get the spare from him.

"That's okay. I'll get them fixed." I grabbed them away from him and hung them on my shirt with the good side. I looked at Ran and then away. Maybe sitting next to her shouldn't happen anytime soon while I wasn't wearing them.

"Hi, I'm sorry about that little boy. My name is Oshiro Tadashi," the man said. He wasn't that much older then the girl. He had a narrow face and thick russet colored hair that hung layered at the sides of his face.

"And I'm Hitomi" the woman said afterwards. She put her hand on my head and mussed up my hair. "Sorry about my boyfriend. He can be a little clumsy sometimes."

Ran took this time to spin me around and make sure I was okay. She touched the bruise and I had to brush her hand away. Hey, it hurt. She was also a little closer than I would have liked her and I started blushing again. "I'm okay, really."

Ran nodded and stood to face the others. Her stare wasn't as inviting as her words, though it looked like she was more worried than anything, and I was fine, so that would go away soon. "Hello, I'm Ran." She introduced herself and the rest of our party.

"You know, we're about to go to the boat ride. Do you want to come with?" Hitomi offered.

"Yay, a boat ride!" Ayumi started shouting. The others didn't look too excited until she spoke up and they turned to her.

"A boat ride would be nice," Haibara added. All of a sudden the others were game for it.

"Lets go on the boat!" Genta added.

"I-…I-…" Mitsuhiko's enthusiasm started to deflate slowly. "I'd rather not." He started to turn white.

"Quit being such a scaredy cat" Ayumi said, dragging him forward so he didn't have any chance to slip away. I leveled my eyes and felt an ironic smile on my face. Poor guy looked like he was going to be sick. It must have been all the cotton candy they ate earlier getting to him.

"Well, it looks like that's settled. The boat ride's over there." Hitomi pointed to the left of where we were heading.

"As an apology for my boyfriend, how about this?" Hitomi gave me a kiss on the forehead and put me up on her shoulders. I was happy that no one could see me blush from up there. Her jacket felt damp under may hands as if she'd gone on a water ride earlier and wasn't fully dry. Huh. It was the end of the day and night had fallen a while ago. Her boyfriend didn't look like he was wet.

Hitomi kept me on her shoulders as we waited in line. It was getting pretty chilly so there weren't many people left. Maybe I was keeping her warm. The damn clothes made me shiver too though and I huddled closer to her, feeling my eyes close slightly. That was weird. It was chilly, but nothing to… to make my body so tired.

I heard the mumble of voices around me but couldn't focus on anything. I must have drifted off because Ran had me in her arms when I opened my eyes.

"Maybe we should start heading back."

"NO! We want to go on the boat!" Genta complained.

"Please!" Ayumi and Mitsuhiko chimed in. He must have changed his mind or gotten over his upset stomach.

"It's okay. I'm awake." I stretched out and showed her I was up. I didn't know what made me tired in the first place. I had been up late reading. There was no other time to get in the books I wanted without her hovering otherwise.

Ran put me down as we drew a lot closer to the front of the line. A good deal of the people that had been ahead of us vanished while I was out of it. It was only a few minutes until we got into the boat. Hitomi and Tadashi were in the front and he had his arm wrapped around her. Ran and I sat next to them.

"Why do I have to sit with the kids?" Mouri didn't seem to be having a good time. He hadn't even gone on the ferris wheel with us. Ran didn't bother to reply. I couldn't voice my own sentiments, though the stifled yawn probably gave them away.

The boat ride was pretty simple. It went through lit up tunnels with beautiful scenery and music playing. Each tunnel had a different theme all surrounding the seasons. The tunnel opened in places to let in the sky. We just passed fall and winter and were heading into spring when a cell phone went off.

Tadashi's phone rang as we were entering the tunnel. Hitomi and Ran turned on him. It was screeching loud for some reason and the tunnel echoed the noise back since there was no music playing yet.

"Why do you have that on when we're on a ride?" she chided him.

"I'm sorry. Kazu was supposed to call when he wanted to meet up so I kept it on." Oshiro Tadashi looked at the caller ID.

"Huh, That's weird." Tadashi made a shushing signal at Hitomi and us before picking up. "Hi mom, what do you want?"

We were all looking at him. Even the people in the back leaned over to listen. I smiled at the kids in a leery kind of way. What was with them? Could they at least make it not so obvious?

"What?!" Tadashi screamed. Hitomi was so shocked at his sudden outburst she bumped into Ran and she, in turn, knocked me out of my seat.

"I'll be right there," he said hastily into the phone and hung up. "I've got to go," he told the rest of us. He climbed out of the boat and started back the way we had come, walking through at least four-in-a-half feet of water.

"Wait, what happened?" Hitomi followed him out. "Tell me!" she pleaded as she tried to keep up.

"My dad's dead!" His shout was ten times as loud as his phone had bee. I wouldn't have been surprised if all the people on the ride and within 50 meters outside could have heard him. "They say someone killed him!" He was frustrated but waited for Hitomi to catch up. I was already on the side of the boat and quietly made my way into the water. Agasa-hakase didn't tell me if my shoes were fully waterproof and I was hoping I wasn't going to short them out.

The water was deep for me so I swam under the surface. I didn't want Ran stopping me in any case. Tadashi's brief phone call normally would have just had me on my way, but with Ran there and without my glasses, I was up for a reason to vanish. Helping someone out with a murder couldn't hurt either.

"Conan?" I heard distantly behind me. There was no way that she could catch up to me now. I'd have to call her later. I'd also have to call the Professor and get the other set of glasses.

"What happened?" I heard Hitomi ahead of me. They weren't that much further.

"They say they found my dad dead at home. Poisoned. I can't believe that! How could someone have killed him? Why?" I could hear the despair in his voice but the anger overtook it.

Another boat was coming and they barely made their way around it. I dove underwater and swam beneath it. It was tight but they don't want their boats hitting the bottom.

I heard splashing behind me. Shit! She actually followed me? My detective badge was going off but I couldn't hear it underwater. If that thing didn't short out I had to figure my shoes were good. The Professor really went all out. Funny that the other half of his inventions were junk.

Tadashi and Hitomi made their way out and I followed closely behind. If they hadn't been in such a hurry they would have noticed me. My soaking wet clothes made getting out and running after them hard and they were able to fight against it better than I was but it didn't bother me much. My wet socks were the most annoying.

We made our way out of the park and I lost track of Ran. If she was still following me I couldn't see her. I hadn't heard anything since the splashing back when we were in the tunnel, though I hadn't really turned back going through the park and there was enough noise around me to drown her out.

They called a cab over and I snuck in behind Hitomi as it was taking off. The cab was making its way down the street when she noticed me. I didn't really have anywhere to hide.

"Oh no, Tadashi. That boy followed us. What should we do?"

He looked at me and I stood up, putting on my innocent smile. I had no excuse this time since Mouri hadn't joined them but whatever.

"We can't turn back…" Tadashi quickly debated to himself. I didn't really think he'd turn back. He'd gave the address and orders fast enough and I doubt they'd leave me on the side of the road. "Kid, do you know your phone number?"

"Yep." What kid, even at my current age, wouldn't know their phone number?

"We'll call his parents to pick him up when we get home," Tadashi decided. As if that weren't a stupid course of action in any normal circumstances. It seemed like a kidnapping from the outside, and they were virtually strangers. The guy was really upset though. Hitomi put me on her left, near the door, as she leaned into Tadashi.

"Are you okay?" she asked, gently grabbing his hand.

"Yah, I'm sorry Hitomi. This day was supposed to be perfect and my father seemed so happy that we were getting married. I just can't understand it."

Oh they were getting married. That must have ruined their wedding plans. Maybe I shouldn't have followed them. Ran was going to kill me for running off anyway, might as well stay at this point though. It also got me out of any more stupid rides.

I sat down and tried to stay out of their way during the cab ride. I was dying to know details, to get the facts, but there's a time and a place for everything.

We reached their house and they got out arm in arm. I followed them out the door and closed it, looking back at the cab.

"Hey, what about my fare?" the driver demanded out the window.

"Oh, sorry about that." Tadashi walked back over and pulled out some bills without even counting them. I looked him over as well as his wallet. He didn't seem well off enough to be doing that but that only struck home more the affect this had on him.

I headed up with them to a nice two-story house. Nothing fancy. If this was a robbery gone bad, there were other homes in the area that were larger. We went in the front door, which I took a look at, and passed several cops and up to the second floor. There were two other rooms and a bathroom before they stopped in front of a door. Both looked normal to me.

The last room was where the body was.

Tadashi rushed over to his father with Hitomi holding him. He was very upset and was fighting with one of the officers who tried to stop him. It was still a crime scene. There was a tech in the room, checking the carpet, that was pushed out of the way. The body was sprawled out in the center of the room, no obvious signs of a struggle anywhere I could see.

The deceased was in his late fifties. He was overweight and his black hair was thinning on top. His body was twisted and his facial muscles were all taunt and pulled back.

It looked like he died of suffocation but there were no marks around his neck and, with how big a man he looked to be, it would have been pretty hard to get a bag or hold his mouth and nose closed long enough to kill him against his will.

"Conan. What are you doing here?" Megure-keibu walked into the room with Shiratori-keibu and Takagi-keiji.

"Oh, hi." I scratched the back of my head and tried to look innocent. Usually Oochan or the kids were around to make the excuse of coming with them. By myself I looked a bit suspicious.

"I hope you didn't touch anything," Shiratori-keibu murmured.

"I can't believe there's another one. Which one is this?" Takagi-keiji asked the Inspector. He seemed to be comparing something in his notebook and having trouble getting things in order. I frowned.

"This one has a lion on him."

"A lion?" I asked. _Another one? A serial murder? But what was it about a lion?_

"Yah. There's been a rash of homicides from all over. It seems the murderer has come to Beika now." Takagi-keiji lifted the man's shirt. Underneath was a lion's head cut into it. The blood was dry, indicating it was done after his death.

"Hey, quit messing with the crime scene," Shiratori-keibu yelled at Takagi who immediately dropped the shirt to rest back over the mark. I put my hand to my chin, visualizing the image and it's position.

"But why a lion?"

"Because we've got a homicidal maniac on our hands." Takagi-keiji let out a sigh as if he'd been at this for a long time now. "Nothing connects. We've been calling them the Dorothy Murders. People from all over Japan have been killed over the past year, all of them flawed according to the killer's logic. Kinda. A few we weren't sure on."

I looked at the dead man in front of me. _The lion. What significance did it have in The Wizard of Oz? He needed… courage. Okay. How did that fit in with this man? _And what kind of person would do something like this?

"Inspector" Shiratori-keibu had finished speaking with another Officer. "Oshiro Takuma was a small time business owner. From what we know, he wasn't a very outgoing person. His wife, Nomori SOMETHING, left him last month after sixteen years. She says it was because he was too placid. Apparently they'd been having arguments for some time. He apparently wouldn't defend her when another man tried hitting on her. She's got a solid alibi. She was working at a business in the city."

"Why target this man, though?" I asked.

Megure-keibu sighed. "There's been no connection between the killings. They only link up to the main characters from The Wizard of Oz. We've found victims with scarecrows- represented as crosses with a bird on them, tin men- represented by an ax, lions, and Dorothy is represented as Toto, the dog. Actually, it was an Inspector down south that figured out the connection."

"So the killer murdered Oshiro Takuma because he was cowardly?" I only half said it as a question as I thought aloud but it was answered anyway.

"Precisely. There's no other connection and more the thirty victims have turned up throughout Japan. This killers a crafty one."

"More then thirty?!" Jeez, this guy must be good to out step the police for so long. And to have so many victims… "Do you know how he was killed?"

"We're not sure but we think it was Strychnine. The victim looks like he died of suffocation but there's no strangulation marks. Strychnine leaves the body quickly but there should be small traces in his blood steam. It's an awful way to die and one of the killers favorite methods." Megure-keibu looked more worried than he normally did. I didn't blame him. Why hadn't I heard about this killings before though? Was the killer that dangerous that it never made it to the press?

I looked the body over again. Yikes. Strychnine poisoning often involved lengthy and painful seizers and the victim wouldn't die for sometime.

"Is this the first case in Beika?"

"Okay, enough out of you." Shiratori-keibu dragged me out of the room. I'd already figured out what I wanted. Now I needed to see what I could dig up on the other victims. If the killer had left some type of clue, I'd find it.

"Does Mouri-kun or Ran-chan know where you are?" Megure-keibu asked me as I was being escorted out.

"Ah."

" I'll give them a call then. Stay out of this room and don't leave until they come get you. The other rooms are off limits too." Shiratori-keibu started calling Ran as I walked out of the room. Even as I walked away from him and downstairs, I could hear her screaming.

"…_When I get there he is going to be in so much trouble!…"_

…

I sat on the couch to wait for her. Occhan would surely get involved with the case and I'd find out more. Whatever they were keeping to themselves, they'd likely share with him, to get his- my- help. I shivered.

Oh right. I had jumped into the water at Tropical Land. I didn't notice how cold I'd gotten in the wet clothes. It was the beginning of fall and, while a trip there wasn't bad, walking around soaking was. I sneezed. Great, I must be getting a cold.

…

"Conan-kun!" I was woken up about ten minutes later by Ran busting open the door. Again I didn't remember falling asleep. I yawned sleepily and rubbed my eye.

"What on earth did you think you were doing? Why did you leave in the middle of the ride?!" She marched up to me and grabbed my wrist. I noticed that her sweater was wet. She _had_ followed me in. I felt kind of bad about that. She must be as cold as I was. She still looked so pretty though.

"I'm sorry, Ran-neechan," I murmured. My voice came out so quite it must have loosened her up. I smiled a little at her. How nice of her not to fling me off the couch like it looked as if she was going to.

The rest of the group ran into the house.

"Conan-kun, why'd you run off?" Ayumi and the others started asking questions, all the same one just with different words. Before I could even defend myself I started sneezing again.

"Ah, Conan-kun… Let me see if I can't get you a sweater." Ran was so nice. Even when she's furious at me she still thinks about stuff like that. I really wanted that sweater too. It was freezing in here. Her touch was so warm compared to the air.

"Conan-kun, why'd you leave?" Genta yelled at me. "We didn't get to stay because we had to find you. I missed all the rides!"

"It was getting dark anyway, we couldn't have stayed much longer." My voice came out coarse and quiet.

Ayumi pushed herself up on the couch next to me and put her hand on my forehead. I felt myself blush. There were so many girls touching me today, even if this one in particular was too young for me… and always would be, not matter what I looked like.

"Do you feel okay? You don't have a fever."

That took me aback. I felt sick and cold; I also felt a headache coming back on. It was strange I hadn't developed a fever yet. Maybe it was one of those colds where you don't get one. I'd had those before when I was little.

Ayumi continued to move her hand down my face where it felt cold against my cheek. She drew it away quickly with an intake of breath. I looked over at her with my half-closed eyes, wondering what was wrong.

"That's weird. Your face is burning hot but your forehead isn't."

I put my hand up to my face. The difference in temperature wasn't great but there was a difference. "That is weird." I mumbled to myself. Maybe it was just because she'd got my heart racing for a second there and I'd been thinking some pretty weird, scrambled thoughts that even I couldn't fully remember. I just knew they had followed the thought about having all the girls attention on me. I thought of it as all, that was, until the last girl that hadn't touched me yet, did.

Haibara made herself known at that point. She came up on my other side and put her hand gently against my face too. Due to feeling sick and Ayumi still in contact with my skin, I hoped Mitsuhiko and Genta didn't notice how red my face got.

She put her face right up to mine as if she were going to kiss me. My reaction time was slow but I heard the others gasp. I was bright red now. Then the weirdest thing happened.

She smelled me.

Haibara took my still wet shirt and smelled that too. She looked underneath the collar and finally looked at my hands. I felt like some puppet that she was looking over. It was hard to move and impossible to fight her.

She had my palm face up in her hands when I noticed it was red. When she rubbed her thumb against the flesh it felt slightly raw, as if someone had put sandpaper against it. I winced a little. When did that happen?

"How strange," Haibara spoke. The others were staring at her, almost as lost as I was for once.

She smelled my hand and shook her head.

"What?" I asked her outright. My head was spinning too much for me to concentrate.

"We've been at Tropical Land all day so maybe you touched something here. Whatever the case, it seems you might have come into contact with chloroform."

Haibara rolled up my sleeves. "It seems you've only touched it but you must have been somewhere where it was concentrated to get these symptoms." She put her hands up to my throat. "Though you are truly sick as well."

I gently pushed her hand away and jumped off the couch. Though a little dizzy, I made my way back up the stairs to the room. chloroform should have left traces. If Oshiro Takuma was knocked out with it, the forensics guys would have noticed. Anyone could have done this then, they didn't have to overpower him.

The Inspector, Shiratori-keibu and Takagi-keiji were still there along with Mouri. I have smiled in an 'I knew it' kind of way. I hadn't been close enough before to hear what they were taking about. Damn it. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. I hadn't even seen him pass me down stairs.

I went over to the victim and looked for the same irritation marks. I also smelled around his face without trying to make it to obvious. I sneezed, turning away at the last second, sniffling a little as my nose became irritated.

Though it was hard for me to smell, there was no sign that this man had been anywhere near any chloroform. There was no scent I could pick up, though I would blame that on my nose if I was wrong, and a chemical like that left irritation marks. Even slight contact would redden the skin.

"Stranger and stranger," I heard from behind me. The whole gang had come in and was leaning over my shoulder. I let out a breath of a laugh. Oi, oi. Didn't they know this was a murder scene? They eve bypassed the cops.

"Hey, what are all you brats doing in here!?" I heard Mouri yell when he spotted us. "Get back down stairs right now!"

Mouri practically kicked us out of the room along with deafening us. I stood outside the door and thought. I hadn't gotten any new information on the case either and more questions had come up. Maybe whatever I touched had nothing to do with this case. If so, then I had to wonder where it had come from. chloroform wasn't the easiest thing to get a hold of and it was obviously in the hands of someone who couldn't be responsible for it. If it lead to another murder, I had to find out. No one uses chloroform for a practical joke.

"Conan-kun, there you are," Ran said, coming out of one of the bedrooms. I looked up and saw Hitomi follow behind her, looking depressed.

"The family had some old clothes put away and we were able to find a shirt that might fit you." In her hands Ran had a long-sleeved, light pink shirt, with a white flower in the middle. It was obviously a girl's shirt.

"Sorry, but none of the guys kept there old clothes." She looked at me apologetically. I could hear everyone giggling behind me. Really? I'd rather deal with the cold.

"That's okay, I'm dry already." I tried to sound convincing but Ran grabbed my shirt and felt how damp it was. She sighed. I resisted sighing as well. There was no way she was getting me into that. The pajamas were bad enough, but this was a _pink, flower power, girly shirt!_

"Just come here." Ran grabbed my hand and led me into the bathroom. "You kids should go wait downstairs," she said as she closed the door behind us. I heard Genta laughing the loudest. How about Mars? Maybe that would be far enough away for me not to be seen. They should wait there.

Ran reached over and started to take off my shirt.

"Hey, I can do it myself" I tried to tell her but my voice was so quiet I didn't think she heard. Her cold fingers brushed against my body as she took the shirt off over my head.  
"Conan, You're really burning up. We should get home." Her worried eyes made my heart ache. I smiled back at her, not trusting my voice to be reassuring. It was just a cold. I'd hopefully lose the rest of the symptoms in the next few hours. I should probably shower too.

She took a towel and tried to dry me off as best she could. She dabbed at my shorts to, to try and help them dry. I was happy she hadn't come in with pink shorts too. While a shirt could fit a few sizes bigger, shorts would be harder. I didn't even want to think about her trying to get underwear for me.

Ran put the girl's shirt on me and dried my hair with the towel. The dry clothes felt so much better but there was no way I was going to look at myself in the mirror. I didn't even want to walk back out the door after. If only I had a jacket, I could _try_ and hide it. It was still too warm out though for that.

I took the chance to wash my hands to make sure there was no chloroform left on them.

"Come on Conan-kun, it's late. I'm going to go see if dad can drive everyone home." Ran grabbed my hand again and led me back downstairs. It didn't really hurt and she hadn't noticed it was irritated, but it stretched my skin in way's I couldn't fully feel and I tried to focus on that and where it had come from instead of how I was dressed.

"Now all of you stay still while I go get my dad."

"So did you find anything out?" I heard Haibara ask. The others were still laughing and Genta had fallen against the wall and was holding his sides. I closed my eyes and shook my head. Doing so made it hurt terribly. I went to touch my forehead and felt the lump I'd gotten earlier.

Ran came down with Mouri a few minutes later. Both of them were quiet and didn't say anything as we took off. The kids weren't so quiet. I was only a shirt. They should learn to shut up about it. Ayumi was the only one who tried to stop laughing and it looked like she only pulled it off because she was worried about me. Her touching my hand as we were leaving at least stopped the giggling behind me though I could feel glares on the back of my head.

Takagi-keiji was left with the duty of taking us home because Mouri had taken a taxi and we wouldn't be able to fit. With no space in the car, even with him driving, Ran had to hold me on her lap in the back seat. If I didn't feel embarrassed before, I did now.

I couldn't stop myself from blushing but the growing fever kept me safe. She held me gently against her chest. It was so warm and I felt so worn out. The day at the amusement park, with no small help from the chloroform, made me incredibly tired. I felt myself dropping off to sleep. I was still wondering where I had picked it up when the world went black for a few minutes.

Then Takagi slammed on the breaks.


	2. Under Fire

_**Chapter 2: Under Fire**_

Ran held me tightly to her chest as the car swerved dangerously close to a nearby building. The screeching tires hit the curb and the car tipped on two wheels for a second before landing on the ground. The group let a collective sigh.

I looked out the window to see what could have made the officers swerve so badly.

"What the Hell?!" Mouri shouted as I leapt out of the car, Awake now and running high on adrenaline. I only managed to escape Ran in the second he relaxed after the impact. I didn't bother to close the door. I heard another door and Takagi-keiji trailing after me.

On the side of the road a man dressed in rags was convulsing in quick spasms of pain. He was clutching at his throat as he crawled with cut up hands towards the road.

I ran over to the man, not sure what to do. There was no obvious signs, unless the cuts were somehow to blame. I turned his hand over, looking at them for the second I could before he pulled his hand away, screaming. No discoloration or scent. "Call an ambulance." Ran was halfway out of the car and heard me, taking out her phone.

We heard another shout from inside a run down building the man must have come out of. Occhan got out of the car and beside me in time to hear it and we ran to look into it. I noticed Takagi-keiji didn't follow, likely caring for the fallen man anyway he could.

The moment we walked in the building a strange smell hit us and we started coughing. Looking around there was no visible smoke, which set off my alarms. There were a lot of invisible gases, most famously carbon monoxide, which could make you sick.

I covered my mouth with my handkerchief as I looked around. There were two other people dressed in rags, one man and one woman, lying on the floor unmoving. Over in the corner was the man who must have yelled. He was in his later years and gasping for breath in the frame way of another room. Homeless. You didn't see much of them around Tokyo. Whatever was affecting them, it was likely in the air, and it could be killing them.

The building was small and whatever the gas was, it had gotten through to all the rooms. There were no windows to open, most of them having been boarded up by the people taking residence here.

"Ojisan!" I yelled to him, temporarily removing the cloth, "We have to get everyone out of here right now!"

He nodded to me, picking up the woman and putting a cloth over his own face. I made my way through the dilapidated structure, trying to find the source of the gas. It was clear the owner had left the building to meet its own end. I checked the gas lines just to be sure there was nothing coming through. The gas line had long been cut off, so at least there was no fear of the place going up.

Making my way further in, I came across what I was looking for. There was an old fashioned wood-burning stove in the corner. Logs had been added to it to fight off the oncoming cold night. Looking around the stovetop, I came across an I.V. bag. I had no idea how someone had gotten a hold of one, but it wasn't near as hard as getting a hold of some of the poisoned I'd seen used in cases.

Three quarters of the white transparent liquid had fallen into the burner and released itself as toxic gas. I could see no other logical answer. The IV bag had no other purpose and to leave it over the fire at all was stupid if they weren't planning on using it that way.

Taking in a quick breath, which caused me to cough and lose most of my air, I took the cloth I had covering my mouth and reached for the drip.

Inspecting it as I sped out the door, I found nothing that could identify the culprit or the liquid inside. I couldn't risk smelling it while I was inside and I needed to save my air. There were no company marks or labels on the pouch and, from smears of another liquid, likely some type of cleaner, it was obvious that if there had been any fingerprints that the culprit had wiped them off.

I exited the building and made my way over to the victims. It looked like only the old man was still breathing; the man on the side of the road and the others hadn't made it. Ran and Mouri were standing with the old man sitting on the floor between them. Takagi-keiji was back at the car, fending off the kids who at least had enough sense not to run out and were looking on the crime scene. I could hear them asking questions of their own but none were distinct enough at this distance to catch the whole thing of.

Something about one of the dead caught my attention.

After handing the pouch over to Takagi-keiji and telling him where I had found it, I made my way over to the dead bodies.

It was a young man that had drawn my attention. He had light brown hair, cut rather savagely above his shoulders. No hair decorated his face and I was able to see its color and texture compared with his roommates.

This man had been dead hours before any of the others.

I narrowed my eyes, checking him over. I moved my hands around his throat and made my way down his arms. As I did this, I noticed that my fingers were shaking uncontrollably. I stared at them for a second in shock, trying to still them and failing. What was wrong with me? My curiosity won out over my heath and I continued looking over the body, ignoring my own.

I found what I was looking for on his left arm. There was a pinprick sight of blood where a needle had been injected into his vain. The body was passed the point where I could have guessed at what killed him.

I went over to talk to Takagi-keiji as other officers and an ambulance arrived, the lights flashing off the nearby building. It would have to be blocked off. I saw Megure-keibu come running over. Of course. They hadn't been on the road more than five minutes before they were driven off of it.

"Takagi-keiji, don't you think that that guy is different from the others?" I asked him. I tried to tug on his shirt to get his attention to the needle mark. He probably paid attention to me more because of how much my voice was shaking

In fact, I was having a hard time controlling my whole body. I was still really feverish and I must have inhaled more fumes then I had thought. Oochan probably did too. He'd have to be careful.

"What do you-… Hey, Conan-kun. Are you all right?" I felt Takagi-keiji put his hand on my shoulder but I was in no condition to answer him. I had an 'I'm fine' in the tip of my tongue but I couldn't seem to get it out and the word was trying to go spinny on me.

I attempted to shake it off but I couldn't seem to pull myself out of my stupor.

Megure-keibu had made it to us at this point and demanded to know what had happened. I wanted to answer him too but all I managed to do was look up at him blankly. Takagi-keiji looked between the two of us, contemplating whether to help me or obey Megure-keibu and explain everything.

Ran took the decision out of his hands when she rushed over to me. I could feel her hand on my forehead but was grateful that I couldn't make out her face. When she touched me, my eyes seemed to close more.

I could feel my fingers still twitching at my side.

Of course!

From the fever or confusion, I had failed to notice what was happening to my own body. The fumes. They were deadly, as I had thought, but these side-effects weren't normal. They weren't from my cold either. Whatever was in that IV bag would need to be tested. If the old man was alright, I was sure I'd be fine. I hadn't been exposed to it that long. I thought it was just because I was running a fever that I obviously didn't have.

There were several toxic substances that give off this type of reaction, including opium alkaloids, but there was only one of these substances that had come up lately. And that made even less sense. How was this all connected? My vision swam for a few seconds but I didn't need it, I just needed time to think.

Though my brain had processed all of that, my body couldn't listen when I needed it to, when I had to speak up about it.

Ran grabbed me up in her arms.

"What's the matter with him?" I heard her ask Takagi and Megure-keibu. "This can't be from the fever." A fever which I still didn't have. I didn't know for certain what it was myself but I had an idea. An idea which still didn't make sense to me but I didn't have enough clues to put it together yet.

They were all looking at me and I tried to speak but couldn't.

In spite of this, I took out my handkerchief, put it up to my mouth, and pointed to the building.

"There must be something hazardous in the building." Megure-keibu muttered. "Boys!" He yelled to the other Officers. "Don't go into that building without masks, do you hear me!?"

"_Ran_." I murmured. It came out so quietly that she had to put her face up to mine to hear.

"Conan-kun?"

"_That guy_." I tried to point out the young man but my hand was shaking so much she didn't understand. I had to make it obvious so they could start looking for the culprit right away. They had to be nearby to make sure that everything went well. The bag hadn't been set up too long ago. At least, I didn't think it had. For some reason facts were hard to process right now.

"_The man on the street?"_ she asked, also speaking quietly to me. I shook my head and tried to point him out again.

"_The one with the woman_?"

To this I nodded

Takagi-keiji went over to the young man while Inspector Megure-keibu led Ran to another ambulance. I tired to watch him but he was quickly out of my sight. At least they had listened to me.

"You should get him to the hospital. I don't know what happened but he's not looking too good." Megure-keibu helped Ran in as a paramedic took a hold of me.

Too much. Too much had happened in such a short amount of time that I just couldn't handle it. The paramedic's cold hands were on my shoulders and as he lay me down I felt myself slip away. I didn't want to. I wanted to figure out what was going on, go back to the house, look into those in the building. I wanted to see if the killer had let any traces. The black world around me wouldn't let me, shutting out my thoughts.

* * *

…

…

I woke up in a hospital bed. I started coughing and could feel how rough my throat was. I had a drip attached to my arm and some fruit next to me. It must have been after twelve in the morning because the hospital was quite. If there was a clock in the room, I couldn't see it. I let out a breath, feeling that it was a bit painful to do so. So I did wind up in the hospital.

I didn't seem to be sharing a room with anyone. The blinds for the window on my right were open but the room was still dark from the minimal light outside. There were the distant headlights of cars but they were far and the streetlights to low to permeate much of the darkness.

I rubbed my eyes and noticed that they were a bit irritated to. I literally felt like crap. Moving my body in any way left me with quite a bit of pain.

Megure-keibu and Takagi-keiji most likely made the connection between the young man and Oshiro Takuma. If I had thought to check their bodies earlier, I could have brought it to their attention sooner.

All those people were victims of the serial killer.

I sat up and put my head on my hand as I thought. The young man had been injected with Strychnine or some other toxin. I didn't know much of the killers MO. He had then been put in the house with the others after they had all gone to sleep likely, or they would have noticed he was dead. This way the killer wouldn't have to be there by the time the others died to leave their mark. I was positive the young man must have one of the carvings. I'd seen the blood around the wound but it hadn't been enough to make out what it was, just a design of some sort.

They also killed Oshiro. I don't know if they did it with a syringe or orally but he must have been killed around the same time. Obviously the killer had attack them at the same place or that wouldn't have been possible. That or they had a accomplice. If this was a lone killer, which was more likely for them to have escaped the police for so long, the young man had most likely been at Oshiro's. But why would Oshiro let some poor man into his house and up to his bedroom? The poison was too potent for the other person, if they were in another room, not to have been scared off by any noise the first victim had made.

They were killed maybe fifteen minutes to a half hour apart at the most if not at the same time and there is no way to get from the Oshiro's house to the abandoned building time to make that deadline if they were killed separately. The homeless man could have been killed nearby... but if he was, there'd be no point in moving the body to a place where it wouldn't have been possible.

Why would the killer strike both of them at the same time and make it obvious it was done at the Oshiro house? They could have done it somewhere nearby, where they could take Oshiro's body back to his room but how would they know where that was unless they were familiar with the household? It's also possible they didn't even think about that. It's most likely the killer is one of the Oshiro's but what do they have to do with the deaths over all Japan?

There were too many questions without answers. I would have to get more information when they let me out or maybe from the Inspector.

I could feel my body cold and wet from the fever. I felt my forehead. Huh. I had developed one. With my body already weakened from the chloroform and cold air, it was no wonder the fumes had gotten to me.

That opened up ever more questions. How had I come into contact with chloroform? I wouldn't have noticed when it happened if it was such a low dose and only contacted my skin. Did it have any connection with this case and why was I the only one who had touched it?

I saw no sign that chloroform had been used at all in any of the current murders and I had no idea why I would come upon it at an amusement park.

There just weren't enough facts for me to go on. I knew very little about the family. I had only been introduced to Tadashi and Hitomi. Both of them seemed close but either of them could have set the deaths up. It had been a few hours before we ran into them when the others had been murdered.

I knew nothing about his father or mother and I faintly remembered him mentioning someone else who was at the park with them. I couldn't see any motive or connection to the deaths across Japan either. This could have been the work of an outsider.

I heard a sharp crack as something hit the window. I turned quickly to see what was happening. I heard a thud as something impacted against the wall almost the same time I heard the crack.

I quickly jumped out of bed and hid so I wasn't in clear sight, staying as far away from the window as I could get. While I did I disconnected the IV line from the needle in my arm.

All was quite.

I waited a few minutes more and could hear people outside the room running around.

I looked over at the wall closest to me and saw a photo taped up to it. The bullet had been aimed at it and the shooter was no amateur. The picture had also been hung up recently. It wasn't big and it wasn't enough to be a poster on the barren wall. I would find it strange if someone had randomly tapped it there before I was ever in this room. And if it was somehow related it me it could only mean one thing.

The shooter had been here. They'd been watching me.

I looked out the window at the adjacent buildings. I was sure the shooter wasn't there anymore, or at least didn't plan on firing again. Just to be sure, I stayed mostly out of sight, using the wall to hide myself.

None of them had a decent vantage point except for one that was nearly half a mile away. Like I said, this was no amateur.

Once I was sure that I couldn't see anything, I went over to the picture to get a better look. The room was still dark and the picture wasn't in a very well lit part. Again, showing how good my sniper was. They had placed it and would know where to aim, or an accomplice had, but even with that, the dark was hard to fight.

My heart sank as I looked at it. I took it down with a tissue I had found near the bed and stared at it.

I was in no position to go head-to-head with this person yet. I had no information and little strength to work with. But the killer was challenging me and I couldn't just stand there.

All those introductions that Mouri had made, spun in my head.

_This is Conan. He's just a freeloader_. Damn. Occhan's really going to get me killed one of these days.

A nurse walked into the room and saw me standing with the photo.

"Little boy. Did anything happen?" she asked me politely.

I smiled at her and pointed to the hole in the wall as I hide the picture behind my back. "The window broke and I found a hole in the wall." I said as innocently as I could. "Is there a bad guy out there?"

The nurse looked aghast. She obviously hadn't been expecting something as dangerous as this. Of course there were many things that could have broken the glass like that, but nothing other than a bullet could have indented itself into the wall.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room right away, nearly making me trip.

"Don't worry little boy, there's nothing wrong. I'm just going to see if we can't get you a new room, Okay?"

She found a vacant room further down the hall and helped me into the bed, tucking me in as well as checking my fever.

"Don't get up for anything and don't leave this room until I come back, Okay?"

She really was a nice person. Even with how scared she was, she made sure I was feeling fine before leaving me alone. I smiled and nodded to her.

She smiled back but I could see her hands shaking on the doorknob.

When she shut the door the room went even darker. The curtains in this new room were closed and I couldn't make out my hand in front of my face. My watch must have been left in the other room and I couldn't use that either.

I pulled out the photograph and held it in my hands. I may not have been able to see it but I knew perfectly well what it meant.

I folded it up and slipped it into my pocket. It seemed strange, but they had kept me in the same clothes I had been wearing, which I would have been glad of except for the pink flower shirt. I wanted to get up and see what the hospital staff was doing but the shooter was long gone and it would be a while yet before the police arrived.

I had a million things going through my head but I couldn't put any of the pieces together.

Yet.

It was obvious now that I was deeply involved in this case whether I wanted to be or not. Why was pretty obvious, but it made the killer even more insane than I had took them for before. I had thought that the killings were some people getting on the killers bad side. That was a reason. Hiding it behind a puzzle was a good way to keep anyone from looking too deep. I was in danger now though. I didn't think I had gotten on anyone's bad side as of late, and even so, I was a child.

I sat up in bed and waited for the cops to arrive, playing with a photograph of a black terrier dog with a hole through its head.

…

"Are you sure you don't know why the window to your room was shot?" Megure-keibu asked me for the eighth time. The room was brighter now because the light was turned on. Outside the world was also a light shade of blue and pink that was slowly turning whiter. They wouldn't open the shades though, and I could barely see the coloration through the small gaps.

"No. I have no idea. I just woke up and heard the bullet hit the wall. There wasn't anything else." I hadn't told the Inspector about the photo. What good would it have done? If anything, it would have secluded me from finding the culprit.

It was seven in the morning. I had gotten a few hours of sleep after he had initially shown up when they investigated the crime scene and asked around the hospital for any witnesses.

" Megure-keibu, maybe it was an accident. I don't see why anyone would want to hurt this snot nosed brat anyway. Maybe whoever shot the gun had the wrong room." Mouri inferred, as he did nothing to stifle a yawn.

Ran held me close to her and stared at me with worried eyes.

"Just to be safe. Shouldn't we do something?"

I grabbed onto her arm and stared back. "But Ran-neechan, I'm fine. I can go back home now. I don't want to stay in the hospital anymore, anyway. I'll be just fine. I'm sure that it was just an accident. It _was_ dark out."

The fever hadn't completely gone away but the fumes were out of my system and there was no way I was going to be sitting around while someone tired to kill me.

"I don't know" Megure-keibu put in "There's no proof that anyone was aiming at Conan-kun, judging from where the bullet hole is, but I don't feel good leaving him alone if something happens."

"Hey, Megure-keibu, what happened to the old man last night?" I asked.

The Inspector shook his head. "He couldn't tell us anything and by the time he reached the hospital he was already dead. That bag you found was filled with a drug. The fumes were so potent that everyone died within minutes. You were lucky you didn't inhale anymore or you'd be in serious trouble right now."

Sato-keiji entered the room with a glass of water. She had come with the Inspector last night and neither of them had any rest.

"One of the victims last night had a dog carved into their leg. Their murderer is probably the same person who killed Oshiro Takuma or one of their associates, since it would have been hard for one person to kill both of them in such a short period of time."

I thought about that. There could have been two killers but something in me said we were only dealing with one. If this person made their way across Japan killing people, it would be almost impossible to do so with an accomplice. It wasn't something he could dismiss as a possibility though.

"So where was Ms. Oshiro?" I asked Sato-keiji. I knew she was suspicious me sometimes but that meant she'd answer my questions seriously.

Sato looked at me piercingly. I smiled off to the side and shrugged.

She smiled back.

"Ms. Oshiro had been out of town since last night. She could have set up the murders and fled but she has shown no signs of working against the police. We had her questioned out there and Shiratori-keibu went out this morning to question her as well." She sighed.

"The two your group arrived with last night also don't have a solid alibi. Oshiro Tadashi had been hanging out with his brother, Kazu, but they had left each other around four in the afternoon yesterday. Kazu-san says he went off to read a book he'd been interested in, in the park, and Tadashi-san claims to have been walking on the beach about half-an-hour away to kill the time until he was to meet his girlfriend- sorry, fiancée, at the amusement park."

"Both Oshiro Tadashi and Nakamura Hitomi met up at the park at around seven p.m., a good two hours after the murders would have been committed. None of the suspects seem to have any reason to kill Mr. Oshiro or the others. Were looking at a real messed-up person here," Megure-keibu added on.

"It was probably an outsider and accomplice who killed them. The murders outside Beika aren't connected to this family at all." Sato-keiji sighed. "We just don't know where to start. We thought that maybe the shooting here had something to do with the murders, since you were around them and at the crime scene last night."

I shrugged my shoulders again and debated whether I should tell them about the photo. It was obvious the murderer was after me because I met their screwed up logic of being 'homeless.'

Of course, if they had any inclination of who I was they wouldn't have labeled me that way. My home was right across the street and I had family to go to. The murderer must be picking up their information from visual and off the streets.

It was pretty clear, now that they're targeting me, that they don't have any ties to their victims. If they did, it had to be someone that _I_ knew, and had known long enough to want me dead. Then why didn't they shoot me though? They obviously hadn't been aiming. They were warning me. Why?

"What do Tadashi-san, Kazu-san, Ms. Oshiro and Hitomi-neechan do for a living?" I asked.

"That's the thing." Sato said. "If we're putting the deaths on this family it could be any one of them. Ms. Oshiro travels all over the place. It's been a hobby of hers since she was young, Kazu-san is a truck driver and travels hours away throughout Japan, Tadashi-san had been head of his family's business company for years now and travels all over the place for business meetings, and Hitomi-san is a flight attendant on a national airline. Any of them could be the culprit if were just looking at this family."

"But there have been deaths all over and many other families involved. Just because the killer's in the area now doesn't mean they live here or have any connection whatsoever."

Again I had to think through this. It was true that it could have been anyone who killed those homeless people and Oshiro-san, but something was bothering me. It didn't have to necessarily be someone close to him but the lock on the door wasn't broken and there were no signs of forced entry when I showed up.

You'd either have to have a key or have been let in.

"How did the killer get into Oshiro-ojisan's house if he didn't know them?"

"There weren't any signs of forced entry but the door might not have been locked. The killer was probably waiting for everyone to leave before striking."

"Now that we've got that settled, it's clearly the work of an outsider and there doesn't seem to be any connection to this brat. It was probably just an accident that his room was shot at. There might be someone trying to kill someone else in this hospital. We can't just stay wrapped up in one case." Mouri yawned again.

_Damn it._ I didn't want them looking into the other patients. They wouldn't find anything and it would just waste valuable time.

But there was nothing I could do as they walked out of the room to investigate. Ran was still sitting on the bed, next to me, and had one arm wrapped around my waist.

We both waited in silence while Mouri strolled around the hospital with the police. I was deep in thought. How were these murders connected? Why was I so set on labeling one of the family members as the killer? Something was still bothering me but I couldn't figure out what it was.

An hour later, Mouri came back and jerked me out of thought.

"Come on. There's nothing more we can find here. Lets just all go home."

Ran nodded and picked me up in her arms.

"It's okay Ran-neechan. I can walk."

"Don't be silly." She flicked me on the nose. "You've been sick and running around getting yourself into trouble. There's no way I'm letting you down." She smiled and held me tighter. I could feel my cheeks go red. I was really worrying her. I would have to stop that one of these days.

The bright sunlight stung my eyes when we made it outside. They must have still been sensitive.

"Ah, it's such a nice day out." Mouri stretched his arms above his head.

I felt the air rush past me a few inches in front of my face. Mouri jumped back as a car alarm next to us started to go off. "What the hell was that? It wasn't me, I swear!"

There was a photo taped to the door.

I forced my way out of Ran's arm and looked at the photo. This one was taken off a computer, unlike mine, and had a picture of a Wheatfield.

In the center of the field was a scarecrow.

I looked over at Mouri as he bent down and stared at the photo with me. It was pretty obvious to anyone who knew Mouri that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but with the reputation I helped him get, he was practically an idol.

Yet the killer labeled him as brainless.

We must have been watched closer than I had thought, though it wouldn't take long for someone to notice Mouri's mindless personality. Then something else started to bother me. They were warning me again? Or Mouri? Why? They could have killed either one of us just now with that shot.

"What's going on?" Megure-keibu asked as he came upon us and the shrieking car a few minutes later. Mouri took off the picture with a cloth and handed it to him.

"What do you think?"

Megure-keibu understood immediately, as I had when I saw the dog. He has known Mouri for years so he made the connection between the two. Sato-keiji figured it out as well from the times she has spent with the conscious Mouri.

She shot a glance over at me.

"Doesn't this look a little familiar?" She grabbed my arm. "There wouldn't have been a picture in your room too now, was there?"

I wasn't surprised she figured me out but I hadn't been expecting Mouri to be targeted.

I ignored Sato-keiji altogether as something occurred to me. Why were we being warned? The sniper could have taken me out in the hospital or even just now. They could have taken out Mouri as well.

There were only two possibilities that occurred to me. One, the killer was growing more confident as they killed or two, the killer knew we were getting close to them and wanted to put our minds somewhere else.

If it were the former, it would make the criminal much easier to catch. If, on the other hand, it were the later, that meant it was definitely one of the Oshiro family and they were confident that they could get away with it. This would get them media attention too. Why would they want that?

It would also make them very dangerous.

Sato-keiji suddenly grabbed my other hand. I could feel her searching my pockets. I was so distracted I hadn't even noticed what was going on.

I knew it when she found the photo. I struggled against her but there was nothing I could do in such a small body.

The Inspector and Mouri-ojisan were contemplating his picture still so they didn't notice Sato-keiji unfold mine. Ran was looking at me, hoping she was misunderstanding the situation. All I could do was look down.

Sato-keiji starred at me. "Why didn't you tell us?"

I looked bleakly up at her. "How would it have helped?" Besides, whether this was premeditated or not, I was a new target. There were no clues to this killer before now and it seemed no messages were left. I was thinking it might be a copycat but I hadn't heard of any of these cases on the media. That could be why they wanted the attention now, to start up similar killing or half recreate some of their own to throw the police off.

"We can protect you. Who do you think we are? We're the police. It's our job to protect. I know you're smart but don't try and hide anything from me again." Her voice was low and harsh but the Inspector and Mouri didn't notice our confrontation. To my surprise Sato-keiji folded up the photo again and put it back in my pocket.

She bent over and put both arms on my shoulders. I was a bit taken aback.

"Don't get yourself killed. I'm not letting you off that easily. I suppose you just got yourself a bodyguard." She smiled at me and winked.

I smiled back. Somehow she had managed to understand. You can't lure out a criminal without bait and even now, I wasn't going to let Ran's old man take that role.

Ran looked at me. She saw how calm both of us were so she automatically figured everything was fine.

The shadow of doubt in her eyes still lingered though.


	3. The Tin Man and The Suspect

_**Chapter 3: The Tin Man and the Suspect**_

Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji watched as I made my way to school. Sato-keiji followed me in the car while Takagi stayed to guard uncle.

They had been with us for five days now and nothing happened. I started back to school the day after I got back when my fever had gone down.

Haibara, the Professor, and I had discussed what had happened. Neither of them had any thoughts as to who the murderer might be but both were keeping watch around the neighborhood.

Haibara met me in front of the Professor's house and we walked towards the school as we did every day.

"So, did you guys spot anything suspicious?"

She looked at me with bored eyes "Of course we didn't. If this killer's as good as you say they are, there's little chance we're going to find anything obvious."

I sighed and looked around. It never hurt to keep your eyes open.

We were about a block away from the school when I felt the bullet brush past me. I spun to my left, from the direction that it come from but didn't so much as see a shadow disappearing. It was obvious now they were using a silencer and far enough away to remain out of sight while aiming.

For being such a great shot at the hospital, I was a bit surprised that they actually missed me. Had Haibara not suddenly clung to me, I would have ran off in the direction of the assailant instead of being spasmodically pulled back when I tried.

"Damn it!" Sato-keiji had jumped out of the car and headed in the direction the bullet had come from and I wanted desperately to follow her. I was going to push Haibara off when I noticed the look in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

The bullet had missed both of us by inches and had hit a plastic garbage container with a thud. Haibara pointed to it.

I brushed around her to see what had gotten her attention. I felt my heart sink again. What the hell was going on?

I took a cloth and grabbed this new picture and shoved it in my pocket. I then grabbed Haibara and made my way over to Sato-keiji's car.

I didn't dare risk going inside because that would make an easy target. I was sure that the shooter had escaped already but I wasn't going to take the chance.

I sat down with Haibara protectively in my arms on the side of the car opposite the direction of the bullet. She looked around shiftily but didn't seem scared.

Sato-keiji came back about ten minutes later, gasping for breath.

"Man… Who ever it is… I didn't even… get a good look…. they were so…fast." She huffed.

She noticed Haibara in my arms and realized something was wrong.

"What happened?"

I took the picture out of my pocket with the handkerchief and handed it over to her without a word, still looking around. It was one thing to play bait, this was another.

She looked at it. I could practically see the profanity trying to make it's way out of her mouth. Her hands were shaking she was so angry.

"Why the heck is the killer suddenly targeting children?" She almost crumpled up the picture of the Tin Man in her hands before relaxing her grip. My brain was working frantically.

What was going on? These weren't the killer's normal habits. They had murdered people around Japan quickly and without notice. Now all of a sudden, people in the area, people around me, were being targeted.

Sato-keiji looked over at Haibara, puzzled. "And why target you? Seems like a long shot to me. You're more distant than most kids I've met but I wouldn't say you're heartless."

Both of us shrugged. It really was a long shot. Haibara wasn't sunshine and daisies but she cared about others. She'd proven that to me quite a bit already. What was the killer up to?

Sato-keiji called it in. Unlike me there was no reason to keep Haibara in harms way and there was no chance I was going to let her get in any more danger.

"Sato-keiji, can you take Haibara back to Hakase's house?" Haibara practically stared daggers at me and pushed her body away but I was pretty set on that.

"Why should I be the one who goes back home? You're in just as much danger as I am and if you're going to school than so am I."

My shoulders fell. "There's a killer still somewhere nearby, you have no problem walking into school where you'll be a sitting target?"

"You don't seem to have a problem with it. I'm not as weak as you like to think I am."

I didn't have anything to say to that. I couldn't ask Haibara to do something I wouldn't do but this was different. I was trying to catch a criminal. All she would accomplish would be getting herself killed.

"Just go back. I'd feel a lot better if you were with Hakase's. What would happen if both of us were killed? It wouldn't get anyone closer to solving this crime so just go back. I don't think anything's going to happened again."

She didn't let up. In the end we both wound up at school, constantly looking out the window for a shadow or movement of any kind. That was of course, half way through the day after the police had interrogated us and uncle had been called, along with the professor.

We saw nothing.

The trip back home was much the same except for the heavy atmosphere around us. All of our eyes were searching but we didn't see anything more that day.

…

Sato-keiji and Takagi were at the agency. They had checked the whereabouts of the Oshiro family at the time of the shooting yesterday, mostly at my request- Or Mouri's, really. As far as they were concerned, the family members were a long shot. I thought so too but no one else had been close to me since this started.

"Ms. Oshiro was with family out of the area for three days and they can account for her the whole time." Takagi-keiji started.

"Oshiro Tadashi-san was in his office at the time, since the building opens at seven. There's security footage of him there during the shooting." He flipped to the next page. "Oshiro Kazu-san was on a delivery in the area and would have a perfect opportunity. We brought him in for questioning." He looked at Sato to confirm this. "Nakamura Hitomi-san was on a plane at the time for three hours and there's no possible way that she could have had time to do anything." He closed the packet and laid it on the table.

"So all we know is that it might be Oshiro Kazu," I mumbled to myself. Uncle must have heard me because he clonked me on the head.

Of course Mouri-ojisan and the others still had no idea that the killer was targeting me too. Ran hadn't brought anything up and since her dad had made it obvious that he was in danger, she was more openly worried about him.

So was Kazu our killer? I had talked to Tadashi-san the other day and he said that Kazu was supposed to meet him and Hitomi-san at the park hours earlier but never showed up. Tadashi-san never asked him why he was late. They didn't suspect that one of their family members were suspected of killing Oshiro-ojisan and the others.

Kazu was missing when his father and the others were killed, he was in the area when Haibara was shot at, and he had opportunity to kill the others around Japan.

_But something still wasn't right. What am I missing?_

"Can we go see Oshiro Kazu-ojisan?" I asked them. Both looked a little stunned.

"Why would we let you go see a guy who might be a mass murderer?" Takagi rebutted.

"_Maybe he'll react to seeing me,_" I leaned over and whispered near Sato-keiji.

She gave me a grim looked and deliberated silently in her head for a second before sighing.

"Fine. I guess I have no choice in the matter." She grabbed the keys to the car as I followed her out the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Mouri asked. Takagi-keiji stood up to follow us.

"Ah… Sato-san…"

"No, you stay here." Sato pushed him back in his seat, Takagi blushed slightly at the contact. "You've got to protect Mouri-san. I don't want to come back to a corpse."

There wasn't much Takagi-keiji could say to that since we'd both more or less be protected then so, obligated to his duty, he left out a heavy sighed and fixed himself better on the seat as the both of us walked out.

The trip to the police station was short. Kazu-san was being held in a cell in the back of the station. There were no charges against him that would hold any water and the police couldn't keep him much longer.

Sato-keiji escorted me into the room after she had her own interrogation time. She didn't want to let me in with someone who might be dangerous. Considerate, but I was getting a little annoyed with the degrading perception everyone got around me.

Due to this spare time I had, I was able to watch Kazu-san answer Sato-keiji's questions without integrating myself into their conversation.

"So, where were you on the 4th, three days ago, at around five in the afternoon?"

Kazu-san's appearance took me back. He looked almost nothing like his brother. Where Tadashi-san was angular and of medium build, this man was muscular and thin, with his height around six-and-a-half feet. He had obviously not been thin for long since his clothes were too large for him and well worn. He had a short beard and his dark chestnut-colored hair was in need of a trim.

If you put them up next to each other, Tadashi-san looked like an angel where Kazu-san had more of brutish look of a Viking; a yin to the others yang.

"I've told the cops this several times now. I was at the park reading my book from when Tadashi left to around six in the evening when it started to get dark. I've got the markings on the book, Hell, I'll even tell you what parts I read.?"

The man scratched his face and looked bored. His expression gave nothing away, guilt or innocence.

Sato-keiji spoke up as I watched from behind the glass as their conversation when on. "And what did you do after that? No one can account for your actions until you returned home and you found your mother with the police."

I hadn't known that. Why hadn't I bothered to find out who found the body? Ms. Oshiro had a solid alibi for the shooting at Haibara and I couldn't find a way around that. It was a pretty solid alibi unless the family was all lying for her.

"I didn't want to go and meet up with Tadashi's new_ fiancée_." He practically spat the word out. "He's been trying to get us on better terms but that woman just rubs me the wrong way. Can't control who I don't like now, can I?"

"So what did you do?"

"I left the park at six and went out to get some dinner. I didn't finish until seven and it took me a while to get home. I don't get a day off very often and I was going to spend it my way. If I knew dad was going to get himself killed… I don't know. Can't say I liked the man very much but I wouldn't kill him."

He was being very open. That was either a good or bad thing. It either meant that he was a very honest individual or he had confidence that nothing could be held against him even without an alibi.

"So where were you at around three-in-the-morning that night?"

This question took him aback and he looked at Sato-keiji questioningly.

"Well, hell. I must have been sleeping by then. Who in their right mind does anything else at three?" He looked honestly confused but it's not that hard; I've done it myself often enough

Since Sato was the only one who knew about my involvement, it was obvious that he hadn't been asked this question yet. It would help if we knew if the others were sleeping; it's not like we could prove that they weren't.

Sato sat and thought for a while. There wasn't any reason for me to go in now. If Kazu-san saw me he'd, of course, mention it to his family when he was released. That would only make it harder to find the criminal.

Sato-keiji left the room and looked over at me. I was watching Kazu-san for any signs of nervousness but didn't find any. I shook my head and got up.

I still couldn't tell if Kazu-san was innocent or if he was one of the best actors I had ever seen.

When I got back home, Mouri was still alive. Good sign.

I didn't think the killer would strike while Kazu was locked up. If the police already had a suspect and it was one of the other family members, that would just make it easier to put the blame on him.

There was something I just couldn't put my finger on; something so obvious that I was overlooking.

"Well, Sato-san, we're gathering the family members tomorrow to see if they know anything, but I don't think it's going to help. Even if one of them is this murderer we've been looking for, keeping them together will only make it harder to find out which one." Takagi-keiji announced.

"Well, I guess I'll go with," Mouri spoke up. He hadn't really been trying this time because he was so sure the murderer wasn't here. "Though I'd sooner tell you that you're wasting your time."

"I can come with, right?" I asked in exuberant way.

"No way Conan-kun! You are not getting involved in this anymore!" Ran yelled at me.

My immediate reaction as Conan at this point was to cover my face and plead with her but she wasn't going to make this easy. "Please, Ran-neechan. I won't get in the way."

"No. It's too dangerous. Dad knows what he's doing. He'll find whoever this is, so don't worry about it."

"But I want to go."

"Conan-kun, you have school tomorrow too. I heard Ai-chan was almost hurt today. We have to be really careful. I don't want you to get hurt."

I stood up to her. A hard feat normally and even harder now. "I'm going."

She was absolutely shocked. Conan was her little boy but there was no way I wasn't going to be a part of this. I could have snuck off on my own but I wouldn't put it past her to follow me there and snatch me back home.

I felt her grab my hand. It was so small in hers and I was surprised that I never really noticed.

"You are not being a part of this anymore. I don't care what you want! You are my responsibility now and I'm not letting you go!"

I almost yanked my hand out of hers I was so angry. I wasn't angry at her though and I knew it. I was angry at the whole situation. If I were Shinichi- no, even as Conan, I was never banned from anything I truly wanted to look into. I was not going to look like a child throwing a tantrum. I took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. I was not going to let up.

And neither was she.

We were at a standstill and it felt like the whole room was watching.

I was a little surprised when a cold hand grabbed ours. Sato-keiji looked at me and then at Ran. I could tell the difference in the stares. She agreed with me. Why, I didn't know, but I had shown off a little more than I should have to her before too.

I don't think I've ever seen Ran so upset. She gave me a dark look and released my hand. I could see the tears in her eyes as she left the room.

How could I have hurt her like that? She was only worrying about me. There must have been some other way.

But there wasn't.

Not that I could see anyway. I knew the culprit was close and I couldn't just back away from a challenge. On all the other cases I've been on with them, I've either had Mouri or Ran's unspoken trust and backup when necessary. Now I had neither.

I'd have to find some way to apologize to Ran when this was over. I could tell how mad she was at me. Maybe she would never forgive me. Maybe, I thought for a second…. she shouldn't.

I'd put Ran through so much even when I was trying to keep her out of things. It was impossible. I should have just left and found some way to track the Black Organization on my own. If I really wanted to I probably could have stayed with Hattori. At least he was aware of the danger.

But I chose to stay with Ran. I loved her. I just couldn't vanish and leave her unprotected.

That was pretty conceited of me. It wasn't that I wouldn't leave her. I couldn't.

A hand on my shoulder made me jump. Sato-keiji gave me a long, questioning look. I brushed off my train of thought. I'd find out what I was going to do with Ran later. Leaving myself so open around Sato-keiji wasn't a good idea, even if I could trust her… Nobody else was going to get involved with my problems if I could help it.

I gave Sato a reassuring smile and headed up the stairs to my room. I heard Takagi-keiji and Mouri arguing with her but I knew she wouldn't give in.

Under Mouri's scrutiny, we made our way to the Oshiro house in another white rented car. I could never understand why Mouri insisted on getting the white ones; it wasn't like he didn't get them filthy by the time they were returned.

The way there was silent, though I could practically feel Mouri seething next to me. It made it pretty clear that he was on Ran's side, whether that was because he cared for me (unlikely) or because it would make her happy, I couldn't tell.

We were the last ones to arrive as I noticed Megure-keibu's car along with the red one Sato and Takagi-keiji drive.

The members of the family were all sitting in the living room downstairs. This was the first time I saw them all.

Tadashi and Hitomi-san were arm-in-arm on the left side of the couch. A middle-aged woman, who I inferred was Oshiro's wife, sat on her son's left side, while Kazu-san was on a chair diagonal from his mother.

This was my first time seeing Ms. Oshiro. She was a very shrewd-looking woman. She carried an air around her of being a person of power. Unlike her sons, her features were not well defined though her eyes were sharp and cruel. She was of short stature and her hair fell down in rust-colored curls around her face.

If I thought Kazu-san had looked threatening, this woman took it to a whole new level.

"So except for Kazu-san here, you all have alibi's for the murder of Mr. Oshiro, several homeless people, and the attempted murder of several others. Is there any reason that you can think of that any of you would want him dead?"

This line of questioning was basic but we were dealing with a very uncommon criminal. Whoever this was had killed without reason and had done so mercilessly.

Unfortunately, it made it harder to believe that one of them was the killer. Was I wrong? Why was I so stuck on the idea that the killer was someone close to the latest victim?

"Why would I want my ex-husband dead? We have already been divorced for some years now so it's not like I saw the man." Ms. Oshiro snidely remarked.

"Hey, I had no qualms with my father. Hitomi and I were going to get married next month with father's consent. Unlike the rest of the family, my father and I have always been on good terms." Tadashi-san hugged Hitomi close to him when he said the word '_were'_. Their wedding had obviously been postponed due to the circumstances.

"I didn't like the old man much, I told you all this yesterday, but I wouldn't kill him. Hell, he's let me stay with him and Tadashi here for years. I wouldn't do anything to screw that up." Kazu-san was observably mad at the repetition of questioning.

Everyone looked over at Hitomi

"I barley knew the man," she stuttered. "And Tadashi was really close to his father. There's no way I would hurt anyone if it would make Tadashi sad." Hitomi looked over at Tadashi-san and her eyes practically sparkled.

It went on like this for a while. Megure-keibu, Sato, and even Takagi-keiji asked questions as they occurred to them such as, _Where were they on the 4th when Mr. Oshiro was killed? What happened when you discovered him dead? Where were you when Mouri was shot at_? and other important information that they must have been asked several times by now.

"So none of you have any reason what-so-ever to kill Oshiro-san? There weren't any arguments recently or any old grievances? And none of you had anything against Mouri-san here?" Megure-keibu asked.

"No, please. How much longer is this going to take? We've already been through all this." Tadashi-san sighed.

"This is the last time you'll hear from us. We have all your information and if we figure anything out I don't want any of you leaving town." Megure-keibu threatened.

"Now, where were you all yesterday morning at around seven?" Sato-san asked.

This wasn't the first time they'd been asked. After Haibara and I were shot at, Sato asked Takagi-keiji to get in contact with everyone and find out his or her whereabouts.

"I told you I was at home taking a shower." Kazu-san messed with his hair.

"Was anyone home at the time?"

"No" Kazu-san looked down at the floor. "Tadashi already went to work, mom was still visiting family, and to hell if I knew where that girl was." He gave Hitomi a dark glance but it was laced with fatigue, making him look like a salty old man.

"So Tadashi-san, you were already at the office at that time?"

"Yes" Tadashi let go of Hitomi-san for the first time during the conversation to stretch. "I left for work a little after six-thirty like I always do."

"And when did you arrive?"

He thought about it for a second. "Maybe five minutes to seven."

That was cutting it close. If he had time to shoot at us, then he had to get to the office within minutes. It wasn't possible unless he was lying about the time.

I saw Takagi nod his head out of the corner of my eye. Megure-keibu must have asked him to check into it. I guess Tadashi was telling the truth.

"Of course Ms. Oshiro was still with her sister an hour away, correct?"

She nodded to us as if we were too distasteful to even answer.

"And you, Hitomi-san? Where were you?"

"I was still sleeping." Hitomi-san answered. "Tadashi woke me up and said goodbye before he left and I fell back to sleep. I didn't really wake up until eight or so. Then I made some toast and bacon in the kitchen." She nodded towards the dirty dishes.

"Thank you for your cooperation. Mouri-san, would you like to ask anything?" Megure-keibu asked sarcastically.

Ojisan took no notice of it.

"Of course I would like to and thanks for the offer. Ahem." I held my face in my hand. What damage could uncle do now?

"How many of you have actually seen the Wizard of Oz?" Everyone, including our suspects, looked at Mouri as if he were a nut.

"All of us I guess." Tadashi-san answered uncertainly.

"A ha. And how many of you would kill people based on the story?" Everyone looked at Mouri with confusion and maybe a bit of shock that he was really expecting an answer to that.

"None of us! Why the hell would you think we had anything to do with the murders?!" I didn't think Tadashi-san would be the one to get so upset and it took me by surprise.

"Why? Because you are the culprit!" Mouri pointed at Tadashi.

"What?!"

It was hard to stand next to him. Occhan should make it a point to not accuse people without any proof.

"You and Hitomi-san were getting married and I'm sure your father was probably happy, but you wanted some big show and he wasn't willing to pawn up the money so, in an argument, you killed him and decided to make it look like a homicide."

Mouri's logic didn't make any sense. The wedding would have obviously already been set up if the date was so close so there was no way they fought over money.

"How dare you accuse me of murdering my father! Hitomi and I were planning a small wedding with just the family so how could we have fought over anything?_!_"

Mouri stumbled over himself.

"A- hm. What I meant to say was that Hitomi-san is the real killer!"

Hitomi grabbed onto Tadashi-san's arm. "Why would I kill my husband's father? I had no disagreements with him and I have an alibi for all five incidents so there's no way I had anything to do with it." She they started crying and Tadashi-san wrapped his arms around her.

Kazu-san stood up. "Don't you dare start accusing me again! I already went to jail once because of you idiots and I don't plan on going back!" He marched out of the house followed by Tadashi-san and a sobbing Hitomi. Tadashi-san shot us a death glare over his shoulder, likely with respects from them all.

"Well, that's that." Ms. Oshiro got up and made her way over to the front door, which Conan figured Tadashi-san would have slammed if he didn't think it would've upset Hitomi more.

"You've disturbed my family enough, don't you think? You'd better go now."

Megure-keibu nodded and stood up. Mouri-ojisan was still stunned at everyone's reaction and wouldn't meet Ms. Oshiro's eyes.

I was about to follow them out when it hit me.

Of course! That's what's been bugging me this whole time! Why didn't I notice it earlier?

While I followed everyone out the door, I went to the side of the house. Kazu-san was nowhere to be seen. He had probably gone for a walk to relieve some of his anger.

Tadashi and Hitomi-san were huddled together in the back yard.

"Honey, don't worry about anything, okay? We didn't do anything and the police are going to find the killer. We can still get married and live a happy life." Hitomi nodded and moved away from him. Her tears were a lot slower now and her voice was controlled.

"Oh my!" She looked over at Tadashi-san with excited eyes. "In all the chaos I forgot to make dinner!" She wiped away a few stray tears from her eyes.

Tadashi-san grabbed her shoulders.

"Don't worry. I'll go do it right now. You stay out here and get some fresh air." He gave her a gentle smile, caressed her tearstained cheek, and ran back in the house. She smiled at his back.

I made my way over to Hitomi-san and she looked down at me a little shocked.

"Didn't you go back home with the detectives?" she asked innocently enough.

"Well, I had to make sure of something first." I gave her a long look. "How did you know there were five incidences?"

She smiled gently at me. "Well, there was Tadashi's father, there was something about a group of homeless people, and there was a shooting at Mouri-san, you, and some little girl." She put a hand on my shoulder. "You really should be getting home. I'll go stop the policemen before they leave."

I grabbed her hand with my own. "You must not be aware that the police don't know that anyone shot at me." Her glance shifted to me quickly. I winked at her. "I didn't tell them."

It happened so fast I didn't see it coming. I was forced to the ground and my hand with my watch was twisted behind my back. I felt the metal and heard the sound of a gun being drawn against my head.

"_You wouldn't want to do that_." I gasped. "_You'd give yourself away_."

She thought about that.

"_Why did you go after us in the first place? I've already killed so many people. Why did you think one of us was involved_?" she whispered into my ear.

"At first I couldn't understand it either," I told her. "It was bothering me the whole time but as I was leaving it finally made sense." I turned my head to look at her as best I could. "It was the chloroform."

"chloroform?" she asked questioningly.

"You used it on that young homeless man. You must have put it all over your jacket when you used it to knock him out." I struggled at little to get into a better position but she only twisted my arm more. "My guess is that you then brought the man back to the house with you, where you brought him up to your father's room. You wanted to kill them at the same time to make the police think it was Kazu-san if they did investigate the family, but you didn't count on meeting us at the park."

I continued, fighting for breath a bit since she was pushing on me so hard. "After you took the jacket back, you made sure that you were wearing a long sleeve shirt and a pair of light gloves so that it wouldn't irritate your skin. You weren't worry about Tadashi-san getting any on him, since you planned on only staying with him for a short period of time before he found out about his father."

"And how exactly did you figure all this out?"

My left hand was still free and I indicated to my palm.

"When you instinctively picked me up to be nice, quite a bit of the chloroform got on my skin."

This seemed to make her understand my train of thought. She understood that the chloroform I came in contact with from her jacket would giver her away. She must not have disposed of it properly yet.

She shoved the gun harder at the back of my head.

"You are to go out there and join the police. Do not dare tell them any of this. If I see the cop cars come back, I'll make sure to kill everyone in the family and any of the police I can get before they can stop me."

I was shocked. I never thought she would use the family members as hostages. I was going to call her bluff but closed my mouth, afraid it wasn't one. There was a long list of victims.

She let me get up but kept the gun pointed at me from under her jacket. She nodded for me to go as she went back into the house.

What was she doing? I never thought she would kill the others. Was I willing to sacrifice Tadashi-san and his mother in order to catch her?

I had planned on cornering her and either making her give up or, I guess now that I thought about it, getting shot so the police would find her. I never took into account that anyone else would be in danger.

Uncle spotted me coming over.

"What do you think you're doing, you brat? Stay where I can see you!" He grabbed the back of my coat and dragged me towards the car. I couldn't see a way out of this. I would just have to wait until Hitomi-san left an opening I could exploit.

Hopefully no one would get killed before then.


	4. Gunpoint

_**Chapter 4: Gun Point**_

We got back home to a silent house. Ran must have been mad still because she didn't come down to see us.

I didn't know what I was going to do with her. There was no way to apologize for having worried her like that. Righteously so, as it turned out. Stupid… stupid…. stupid… Mouri went to the kitchen for a beer when the phone rang.

"Hey, brat, can you get that for me? Tell them I not here." He bent over to grab a can. I sighed and picked up the receiver.

"Hello, Mouri-tantei's office." I said in a bored tone. When did I become his secretary?

"What luck. Just who I wanted to talk to."

I held phone tighter. Why was she calling me already? I hadn't even gotten the chance to tell Haibara and Hakase. "What do you want?"

"Why, I only want you. Since you're the only one who figured out my little secret I couldn't just let you walk away." Hitomi chided me.

"And how do you expect to stop me." I asked in a satisfied tone.

"Oh, you're going to come to me and you are not going to tell a soul what you know otherwise there may be consequences."

"There's nothing you can do about me. The police with get you sooner or later and you won't be able to threaten them with the other family members' lives." A part of me still wanted to tell the police. That's what they would do- they would act. They wouldn't care if two or three people were killed if they got the murderer if the worst happened. I was getting too soft.

"Oh, but you're the one who can prove everything. I'm sure that if you change your mind and call them right now, they'd be able to find my jacket. Now that I think back on it, you did have a rash from it. I don't know if you could use it in court but if they look into it, my sister would give me up."

"Right," I remembered. "You were supposedly on a plane when it happened. I thought that was strange."

"Yes, me and my sister change shifts when we feel like it and don't tell so we don't get in trouble. She'd rat me out if she knew I'd killed people. So, after your little insight, my future doesn't look very promising."

"So what do you plan on doing?"

"You're going to come to me." I couldn't hold back a sarcastic laugh.

"You think I'm joking," She laughed in return "But I've got a friend here with me who's so worried about you. You wouldn't want to go and let her die now would you?"

My tightened more as it held the receiver, turning the knuckles white.

"_No_" I answered in a whispered tone. She understood. _Why Ran? Why did they go after Ran? She didn't even come with us. Hitomi-san barely knew her._

"It wasn't too hard to ask Tadashi to borrow the car. That piece of junk you arrived in was so slow; I beat you back by ten minutes or more. All I had to do was say that you were in some trouble and she followed me right out the door."

"What do you want?"

"Just you. I won't even kill that little friend of yours or this girl's father. It's not like anyone will care if a killer suddenly vanishes; not that I'll actually be going anywhere."

"What do you want me to do?" I was planning a million things in my head. There had to be some way to get the upper hand. Hitomi-san had Ran and there was no way she was keeping her.

"Come to the apartments were I killed those homeless men. All the way at the end of the street is another abandoned building. I don't really care how you get there, just make it here in the next thirty minutes." She hung up.

I dropped the phone back down.

"Who was it?" Mouri walked in the room with a second beer in hand.

"It was just Ran." I smiled at him. "She's over at Sonoko-neechan's but she'll be back in time to make dinner."

Mouri just mumbled something to himself and sat down in front of the TV.

I grabbed my jacket and skateboard by the door. The skateboard would allow me to make it there on time and I had plenty of time until dusk so I wouldn't have to worry about charging up the backup battery.

I didn't want to get Mouri involved. If he knew what was going on he would follow me and that would only get Ran killed if she saw me with someone else. The guy wasn't bad but I wasn't going to risk her life on an accident. I knew I was making my second mistake of the day and hoping it wouldn't have as dire consequences. I set out on my own.

It started raining by the time I made it to the building in question. I was easy to find but I barley made it in the time limit. The rain had slowed me down and I had a few close calls with at least five cars, two bikers, and a little girl on a scooter, but I made it. My clothes were soaking wet and I was freezing.

I grabbed at my watch to make sure I was ready and made my way inside.

I still had no plan and no idea what to expect but Ran was in danger and I had to help her. I'd improvise. It had worked before.

The building on the end of the street was dark and at least four stories tall. I made my way quietly inside before thinking that was a bad idea. If I surprised Hitomi my imagination had fun with what she would do.

The first floor was deserted. This was clear from the minute I walked in. Dust covered the floor and the walls were full of cobwebs. Chairs were broken and thrown across the large area. There were a few tables laying on their side or broken into pieces. Papers littered the majority of the floor and the air was musty. A clear trail upstairs had been made recently. This floor had been a office in some other lifetime.

I steeled myself as I made my way up. The second floor was much the same though it had seen quite a bit more disarray before having been abandoned.

I found them on the third floor.

There were no desks, boxes, or obstacles to block my view. Ran had been tied to support beam and was blindfolded. Hitomi was behind her, holding a gun loosely at her side, though she looked nothing like herself. She was dressed in men's clothes and had her hair tied up as she wore a blonde wig. If I hadn't been expecting her, I would never have guess they were the same person.

"About time" Her voice even sounded different and I was relieved. There was no way that Ran would be able to tell that it was her so Hitomi had no reason to kill her.

"You actually listened to me. That makes this a lot easier. Here's what I propose: I could just kill you now but you're close to the stairs, which you most likely did on purpose. I don't think you'd be able to outrun me but I saw you come up. Nifty skateboard."

"Thanks"

"Conan-kun?" Ran voice trembled when she heard mine.

"Don't worry, Ran-neechan. Everything's fine."

Hitomi showed me earplugs and nodded at me before putting them on Ran.

"Wait. Conan-kun. Get out of here. I don't know what's going on but run! Please!" the desperation in her voice was hard to ignore. I had to get Ran out of here. She struggled but once the earplugs were in she had no way to remove them.

"Now listen. I was thinking how this would work. I can't release her and have her go off to the police before I kill you. So what's going to happen is you and me are going to walk out of here and leave her tied up. When we get outside you're going to get in Tadashi's car with me and we're going to find someone and tell them there's a girl tied up here." She paused to dig the keys out of her pocket.

"Then, when you know she'll be rescued but not know where we are, you and me will be two minutes from our destination. It's, yet again, an abandoned building they're planning on tearing down in a week. This one though was bought out and the owners had new ideas for it. It's a good thing too, what with the stains it will have. I shoot you and live happily ever after." She pointed the gun she was holding earlier at Ran. "Or she dies here and I get caught. Your choice."

I nodded to Hitomi to show her I understood. There was no way I wanted to be in a car with this woman. I'd have to find a way to stop her after we got far enough away form Ran.

I turned to go down the stairs when Hitomi ordered me to stop. She had Ran at gunpoint still. I stopped.

"Now, I don't know that you didn't go to the police. Please take off your jacket and shirt so I know your not wearing a wire."

I did as she said. It was hard to take the shirt off because it was wet so I took my glasses off as well.

"Take the watch off too."

"Why?" I grabbed at it as if she could snatch it away from that distance.

"Because," she shoved the gun closer to Ran "I don't know what devices the police have these days and I'm not going to given away by something stupid."

I took the watch off and placed it on the floor. I hated being weaponless against her but I'd find some other way. It wasn't worth endangering Ran.

"Here" she threw a pink jacket at me that was just slightly too big. "Sorry, the guys really don't have any good old clothes."

I put the jacket on without any complaints, barley noticing the fluffy hood tickle my neck.

"Turn out your pockets."

I did so. My notebook was in my right pocket and fell to the floor. I didn't keep anything else on me.

"Take off your shoes and throw them here."

Again, I felt myself hesitate before listening to her.

She checked my shoes and the lining to make sure there weren't any wires. She wasn't satisfied. Apparently, with all the electronics the professor had put in them, they didn't pass her expectation. With the lengths she was going to, I was happy she didn't check my underwear.

She threw a pair of white flip-flops at me. "Be glad I didn't bring the tennis shoes, they never would have fit you."

Now I was in trouble. I didn't have my watch or my shoes. I put the glasses back on but there was little help they would do me.

"Now lets go."

I started walking down the stairs. What could I do? There had to be someway to stop this. I didn't have my phone on me anymore though and that was going to make things difficult.

The car was parked around the corner. Hitomi made sure that I got in first.

"By the way. I don't know how you're so smart but I can't trust you. Until we reach our destination I have a switch here." She showed me a little black remote that looked like it belonged to a automatic car lock. "There's a bomb in that room and I'll only give it to you after we get there."

I stared at her angrily, fear for Ran and anger at this woman completely occupying my thoughts, but she only smiled. I wouldn't be able to do anything while she had that switch in her hand.

We started driving away from the building and were a good six miles when I looked over at her. Her gun hadn't even been pointing at me, she just held tightly to the remote. She had my number down pat. It wasn't very often a criminal did that to me and it left an unsettling feeling.

"This should be fine." We pulled over to the side of the road, near a well-dressed young man with light-colored hair and a briefcase.

"Excuse me, Sir? I'm sorry but I was just walking around with my son and we found a woman tied up in a building back there. I don't have a phone and I can't find a policeman anywhere, will you please get in touch with them?!" Her act was so convincing I felt bad for the poor man and couldn't blame him for falling for it. He anxiously grabbed at his cell.

"Of course! I'll get the police right away! What's your name?"

"Takanada, I'm sorry but I'm very late for a family dinner. Here's my number if you need to contact me. I'm sorry for getting you involved."

The man wrote the number down hastily and nodded. "I'll let the police know right away!"

"Thank you so much, sir!" She drove calmly away from the man and the mask fell off.

"That good enough for you?"

I nodded to her. She took off the wig and put down her hair. "Man, that's been bothering me."

We got to the house about four minutes later. "Hem. I was a few minutes off." It seemed to have no effect on her conscious that she was about to kill a little boy. Not that I was going to let that happen. I had to make sure Ran was safe first.

She held onto my hand as we made our way up to the building. My first reaction was to pull back but her grip became painful and I had to fight all my instincts and be complacent. There was no one in sight and all the other buildings weren't in much better condition then the ones we'd been in before, even if it was a different neighborhood.

No witnesses. I swallowed hard as I tried to think of a way out of this.

The house had once been a nice family home but the curtains, furniture and everything else was in ruins. She didn't hesitate as she made for the stairs

"Here you go." She handed me the switch as we reached the second floor. "If you hit it on the side there, the wires will disconnect without setting it off. If you can't tell that then you'll just have to believe me."

I took the remote from her. There _was_ a section on the side that made it easy to destroy.

"Thought it might give you some peace of mind before I kill you. You are going to be my last victim, for a while at least."

I looked up at her. She was telling the truth. I quickly destroyed the thing.

At last Ran was safe.

She raised the gun up to me and I yelled as the bullet bit through my upper arm. Now to make sure I got out relatively safe as well.

"Never said I'd let you off easy. It was so fun killing all those people. Really lets you get out the stress of everyday life. Now, because of you, I'm going to have to let that go for a while. Might as well take my time killing you."

I screamed again as she shot the hand of the arm that was already bleeding. I had to think. What could I do? The pain was distracting and kept any rational thoughts from forming. The only thing that entered my brain was one word. Run.

So I did, or at least, I tried. Some basic instinct in me told me to get as far away from her as fast as I could. I felt the third bullet hit me in the back of the leg and I fell, unable to make it near the stairs.

I could hear myself whimpering. How pathetic. How stupid and pathetic I had been. How could I have gotten myself into this? Why didn't I protect Ran from the start? How could I have missed such an obvious clue?

The fear in me was overpowering. My right hand, covered in my own blood, clung to drag me forward on the carpet. Pathetic.

I felt her gun on the back of my head again.

"Well, you really aren't as much fun as I thought. You act all tough but you're still just a kid. I've seen a lot of people who don't fold as easily. Might as well just kill you."

I waited for death and I was so scared. What was the matter with me? I had stood up to more than death with the people I had faced down. Yet this woman was actually going to kill me. I was going to die.

The thought had never occurred to me before. I mean, I had gone into some dangerous situations, but I never really expected to die.

I heard the shot I'd been waiting for but there wasn't any pain.

For a moment, I wondered if I had simply died. I looked up. How was that possible?

Sato-keiji was at the foot of the stairs with a gun pointing somewhere behind me. Besides her panting I could hear nothing more.

Then I blacked out.

...

...

...

* * *

I woke up in the hospital a few days later with Ran holding me in her arms.

After the police had left, Sato-keiji had said that something bothered her. It was only later she realized the same mistake that I had, since she knew about me. Hitomi's slip up at the questioning was what gave her away. As she would have said, 'something so stupid.'

Sato-keiji had then made her way back to the Oshiro house to find that Hitomi had left and taken the car. She drove around the city looking for it when she heard the call about Ran.

Sato-keiji was on her way to the area when she saw Tadashi's car parked in front of the house. Hitomi must not have thought anyone would be looking for it so soon.

Fortunately for me, she ran into the house and heard the gunshots. She immediately came upon us and shot Hitomi without a second thought, though she regretted that she had killed her. Hitomi was no longer able to pay for and regret all the people who had died over the years just because she was stressed. Maybe there was some deeper reason, but I hadn't looked into it yet. What ever other reasons she had for doing it may have been lost to us when she died. I hoped I never came across someone truly insane again. I still had no idea what happened to Tadashi-sab but I could guess what I would do if I were in his position.

None of the bullets she shot me with hit any important veins or tendons so my stay in the hospital was short. The worst of it was my hand and it took a while and some surgery. Having it wrapped up between those two points wasn't anything hindering.

Ran was in hysterics when she heard what happened to me. Even now I can't get her to stop blaming herself. Sometimes I wish I could make her understand that it was all on me. If I hadn't been so stupid and noticed the chloroform connection sooner, none of this would have happened and Hitomi would be in jail. It was my fault.

For the few weeks I spent in the hospital, Ran rarely left my side. She got me everything I'd ever need from food, drinks and candies to flowers. Of course, it was hard to accept them considering I didn't believe I deserved them, and she noticed. I had, in a way, still let someone die.

Both of us were too busy wrapped up in our own grief that it took us a while to notice something.

"Conan-kun" she asked me later. "Why did you come for me at the abandoned house when you knew it was a trap?"

I felt my face color at the question. "Why wouldn't I try to come save you?" I held my hands behind my back, which caused me slight pain. "Why did you follow Hitomi without even considering that she was someone bad?" I asked in response.

"Well, she said you were in trouble and I know dad's not the most reliable guy so, I thought I should help."

"Weren't you still mad at me?"

She smiled at me and carefully lifted me up into her arms. "Now, how could I possibility stay mad at you?" She kissed me on the forehead and for, what seemed the longest time, I was disappointed.

"But your right." She put me back down. "I am still mad at you. For disobeying me you are to have no more sweets and I'm cutting off all your book and TV privileges." I stared at her in disbelief. Because of my leg injury I wasn't able to leave the house... Was I supposed to spend all my time watching the wall!?

In response to my look of utter horror she winked and pulled out a copy of the new Sherlock Holmes movie that had just come out on DVD that day.

"Of course, though, how could I stay mad at you?"


End file.
